US Open Recap

Tom's photos on CBM Facebook page

The Carolina BrewMasters' US Open competition was a huge success across the board. A total of 540 entries were judged over the course of four days, and CBM won its share of ribbons including a sweep of the Best-of-Show Beer category by Alex, Mike and Bill.

Members Steve Nance and Mike Schenk also took the two top spots for the Gambrinus Cup and OMB Rein Stein categories, respectively, and each will get his winner brewed. Mike repeats as a Rein Stein winner for the 2nd year. See all results here

The prize coordinators did an amazing job collecting donations and the raffle proceeds totaled $1150.00, which will be donated to A Child's Place, a local charity that helps homeless children go to school.

And there were numerous stand-out volunteers that worked all week or came through big on Saturday that deserve recognition.

Judging
New judges - Dale Seng, Palmer Cook, Jim Stamey, Phillip Morris

Early Judging - Thanks to all those that judged Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and made Saturday more relaxing and enjoyable for all.
Gary Cathey, David Jones, Bruno Wichoski, Jason Randall, Douglas MacKay, Rob Adams, Bill Lynch, Steve D'Avria, Tom Henderson, Roman Davis, Jeff Mason, Dave Segletes, Dale Seng, Palmer Cook, Jim Stamey, Phillip Morris, Mike Ruff, Cesar Leyva, Dan Wilkes, Herbert Busch, Michael McAllister, Mark Anderson, Matt Young, Richard Lane, Tony Profera and Phil Folse, who judged approximately 68 beers across all four days, and Russell Hodge, who stewarded at least that many.

BOS & Raffle - set-up and cleanup
These guys made the Best-of-Show judging of 40(!) beers happen.
Stephen Hutchinson
Doug Simmons
Mathew Taylor
David Jones
Tom Henderson - BOS assist and photos
Alex Shoenthal - Great Prizes and raffle

Stewarding & Cellar Master
Mathew Taylor - outstanding as first-time steward and helped clean up until the end of the long day.
Russell Hodge - Early judging every day and great job on Saturday
Josh Hartmann - Assistant Cellar Master - Big help to Charles in the cooler and his Saturday "get it done" attitude.

Registrar
Stephen Gilbert - Assistant Registrar and real-time posting of results
Patty Ruff & Wes Kemmerlin - huge help to Todd with handling score sheets, auditing results, and preparing ribbons.

Many thanks to ALL the volunteers that worked hard all day to make this competition a success.